Was there a logical explanation I missed at the beginning of the most recent ep for how Jack, after stealing a random car, could use a random laptop in said stolen car to instantly access the security cameras of the hospital he'd just left?

All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my belief! At least for now...

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

Was there a logical explanation I missed at the beginning of the most recent ep for how Jack, after stealing a random car, could use a random laptop in said stolen car to instantly access the security cameras of the hospital he'd just left?

Well, he had taken the CD from the security station at the hospital, but Abagadro's right. It's magic, dude! Jack used his daily power to give the laptop a +4 to wireless hacking and rolled a natural twenty.

Was there a logical explanation I missed at the beginning of the most recent ep for how Jack, after stealing a random car, could use a random laptop in said stolen car to instantly access the security cameras of the hospital he'd just left?

Well, he had taken the CD from the security station at the hospital, but Abagadro's right. It's magic, dude! Jack used his daily power to give the laptop a +4 to wireless hacking and rolled a natural twenty.

He was looking at the contents of the CD taken from the security room (it was shown again in "previously on 24" at the start of the episode). No magic, no security camera access, just a laptop and a CD.

I thought it was more impressive that he could instantly find an old-fashioned car to hotwire the old-fashioned way.

No, Tale. How else would he hack all the firewalls in the laptop and decrypt the video-IP files to access the disc content? I'll tell you how: Magic.

A computery moment I noticed - Jack sitting down at the Senator's desk, telling him why he needs to see the files. The computer is showing a desktop, no apps open. He starts tapping at the keyboard furiously with one hand, while not really looking at the screen, apparently trying to find what he needs. Tap, tap, tap ... somewhere up around the Backspace key.

Clearly the desktop-like image shown was mere wallpaper for the DOS-prompt on the senator's computer. Also, he was in a state of Clear Casting, so more than one key was not required to enter complex commands and navigate the options. It truly is impossible to overestimate the abilities of Jack Bauer.

That is one of my favorite things about "movie computers". The protagonist always sits down in front of a Windows machine and uses nothing but the keyboard navigate the computer and do what ever it is he needs to do. Aaaaaaaaalways happens. Just like when ever they show a kid playing something like Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation, all the sounds are from Pac Man or something.

"My great-grandfather did not travel across four thousand miles of the Atlantic Ocean to see this nation overrun by immigrants. He did it because he killed a man back in Ireland. That's the rumor."-Stephen Colbert

That is one of my favorite things about "movie computers". The protagonist always sits down in front of a Windows machine and uses nothing but the keyboard navigate the computer and do what ever it is he needs to do. Aaaaaaaaalways happens. Just like when ever they show a kid playing something like Grand Theft Auto on the Playstation, all the sounds are from Pac Man or something.

Clearly the desktop-like image shown was mere wallpaper for the DOS-prompt on the senator's computer. Also, he was in a state of Clear Casting, so more than one key was not required to enter complex commands and navigate the options. It truly is impossible to overestimate the abilities of Jack Bauer.

I haven't yet seen today's episode, but so far this season has been better than the last 4 or 5. Did the VP suddenly appear on the phone with terrorists, twirling his mustache and wearing an opera cape? Anything less than that is fine with me.

All life begins with Nu and ends with Nu. This is the truth! This is my belief! At least for now...

Same here. Maybe he meant the previous episode with the sudden Almeida thing at the end.

But I'm still anticipating the curing of mad cow disease. Jack's brain is rotting but we can rebuild him.

Jack's always been so single-minded that he has a lot of unused brain matter the 'disease' needs to chew through before it gets to the important stuff. Once his brain is restored after an injection of Kim-cells, I look forward to the scene in the last episode when he inexplicably gets caught in a bear trap.

At this point I don't care if the eighth season is about a war between the US and Candyland, just as long as they STOP BRINGING KIM BAUER INTO THE PICTURE. That plot point has been stretched so thin it's width could only be measured in nanometers.